notes on: acts of service
by Anthony Febo
and so
i propose to you to ponder this
in all the attire you may dress
Love in
– a night by fire
or a stroll under
starlight or the pulse of the city –
may you not overlook the way “everyday small acts” brings out the color in Love’s eyes
the scrubbing
of dishes.
the dance
of taking out the trash.
laundry.
and washing
and drying
and folding
and the putting away of it all.
if this doesn’t say “i love you” then you’re not listening.
it’s the language
of making a house
a home.
Writing Prompt: What’s your love language? How do you communicate love? The desire to be loved? What are you saying when your love language speaks? Take the Love Language Test. Allow the process to unveil information about you that you may or may not agree with. What happens if the test is true? How has that affected the way you have shown or asked for love? Once you have your results, allow it to speak.
Anthony Febo is a Puerto Rican poet, teaching artist, and new dad living in Arlington, MA. Febo has been performing and teaching poetry and theatre for over a decade in the greater Boston area. His ability and love of remixing different forms got him featured as part of WBUR’s The ARTery 25. In the classroom, Febo treats each workshop as it’s own celebration. He draws on his experiences in theatre spaces, museums, non-profits, and art centers. On the stage, he’s toured the country individually and as half of Adobo-Fish-Sauce: a cooking and poetry collaboration. His work examines what it means to actively choose joy in the face of what is trying to break you. Weaving performance into his writing, he examines issues such as toxic masculinity, family, culture, identity, and the role representation plays into a person’s development. His first full length book of poetry, Becoming an Island, can be purchased at Game Over Books.